[ 2010 ]
The death of Osama bin Laden, at least according to Craig and Jane Hamilton-Parker, "Britain's Best Psychic Couple". Craig and Jane also predicted the discovery of a way to make electricity from water, a secret attempt to clone a famous person and Barack Obama developing an interest in holistic medicine.
The death of Twitter, "which as we know it will fade away", as predicted by the American news outlet CNBC. Either that or it would be shut down. In fact, Twitter gained 100 million new users, more than doubled its staff and raised US$200 million (Dh734 million) of financing.
America will collapse and break up. Igor Panarin, a Russian academic and former KGB analyst, said that he expected the USA to disintegrate into six pieces sometime around June or July last year as a result of political and economic difficulties. Alaska, he added, would return to Russian control.
England will win the World Cup. Using "Quant methodology", normally used to predict movement in the financial markets. Analysts from JP Morgan decided that England were most likely to lift the trophy in South Africa on July 11. They also fancied Brazil. The cup was won by Spain, who defeated the Netherlands in the final.
Third World War. Predicted by seers such as Baba Vanga, a blind Russian visionary who expected the conflict to begin in November and last until October 2014. Nostradamus also saw world conflict in 2010, but was less precise about the start of hostilities. Fidel Castro believed the US would provoke a conflict in the Korean peninsula that would spread to Iran, using the World Cup as a diversion.
"This winter could be unusually mild and dry, with temperatures at least 2°C higher than last year's big freeze." Britain's Met Office, offered its expert opinion in October, less than eight weeks before the UK experienced its coldest and snowiest December for a century.
[ 2011 ]
May 21: The end of the world, at least according to Harold Camping of Oakland, California. Mr Oakland has studied the Bible for 70 years and says he has uncovered hidden prophesies based on a mathematical formula. A civil engineer who runs Family Radio, he says the date is correct, unlike an earlier prediction of September 6, 1994, which he attributes to a mathematical error.
Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono will record together as a tribute to John Lennon. Undeterred by last year's predictions, "Britain's best psychic couple" take a stab at the coming year. Craig and Jane also see the death of a leading politician in a plane crash and the announcement of wedding plans for Prince William and Kate Middleton, perhaps lagging behind reality a bit with this one.
Apple will buy Facebook, the price of gold will continue to rise and crude oil will suffer a large correction later in the year. At least according to Saxo Bank in its annual Black Swan Exercise. Last year it scored 3/10.
And finally, in 1931, The New York Times asked a group of prominent figures what they thought the world would be like in 2011.
William Ogburn, the sociologist, predicted the end of poverty and said women's lives would become more like those of men and that "the magic of remote control will be commonplace." William Mayo, the founder of the famous clinic, believed the average life span would increase from 58 to 70.
Arthur Compton, the physicist and Nobel laureate, saw a decline in the importance of national boundaries and the rise of China as a world power. "The whole of the Earth will be but one great neighbourhood," he wrote.
Henry Ford reflected: "We shall go over our economic machine and redesign it, not for the purpose of making something different than what we have, but to make the present machine do what we have said it could do. After all, the only profit of life is life itself, and I believe that the coming 80 years will see us more successful in passing around the real profit of life."
